Cerulean
by akaihane
Summary: Naruto was brought into the world with a genetic problem. He was blind. and yet despite his condition, he is still determined to become the best ninja the village has ever seen. re-edited version coming soon.


Ok- So this is my second story and it was just a little brain spurt that I had one day. Tell me if they like it so I can consider continuing it.

Pairings have yet to be decided - if there are any at all. So speak now.

And constructive criticism is encouraged. I don't care if it's mean. I want opinions. Please give them to me.

On to the story

CERULEAN-CHAPTER ONE

Naruto stumbled through the forest, his callused and bloody hands spread out in front of him in a feeble attempt to prevent headlong collisions with the trees. His body was covered in wounds, marks of the townspeople's wrath against him. Many were fresh and, bleeding profusely. They were the ones leaving the trail of deep crimson liquid spread out behind. Others were less of a mess, bloody, yes, but quickly on the mend, as was normal for him. They were from the attack three days ago.

The weary eight-year-old slowed his hurried pace when he began to stumble more. The trail of blood behind him became more pronounced as he did so.

Suddenly, he felt himself pitching foreword over a raised tree root. He tried to prevent his imminent crash, pushing his hands out in front of him, but as they collided with the ground, the muscles in his upper arm gave way; they were too injured to support his weight. He crashed face first into the ground. The side of his head collided painfully with an exposed rock.

He lay there for a few seconds completely dazed, his brain fizzing in and out of consciousness. A few minutes later, he managed to find the strength to move his arms away. They groped out into the nothingness surrounding him, searching for something that would support him.

The boy's hand found the edge of a large tree and the fingers gripped into the ancient bark. He pulled himself closer to it slowly, freeing his twisted ankle from the tree's root. As soon as he was close enough to the base, he collapsed, curled at the bottom of the tree, a puddle of blood immediately beginning to form around him, slowly running down the slope from where his head lay, dying his hair a deep reddish brown hue as the wound bled out.

The boy whimpered. Two narrow streams of blood were leaking their way out from beneath the closed lids of his eyes. He squeezed them shut; attempting to turn it off, but the thick liquid continued to flow, stinging the sightless orbs behind them.

Naruto had never been able to see anything. He had been blind since the day he was born, the result of a genetic problem that had not been present in his family in several generations and that they thought had been totally eradicated through inter clan marriages. The medics, who had assessed the boy's problem so many years ago, stated easily that his parents must have been fairly close, genetically speaking, and the recessive trait for blindness that they both carried unknowingly, had come out in him. Naruto didn't know much about genetics and didn't care to. All he got out of the few sentences that they had said to him were that he was never going to have what everyone else had.

However, for some reason, Naruto did have feeling in his eyes, something none of the previous carriers of the defect had. He could move his eyes around to give the illusion of sight. When he was younger, Naruto had once overheard one of the villagers muttering about how it was creepy how easily his eyes followed people, even though he could not see. The only thing that freaked that particular villager out more than the movement of his eyes, was the tears he cried when the pain the man and his friends inflicted upon him became too much. The blonde had always tried not to cry though, because doing that always caused his head to pound and a massive headache to form, and letting tears flow always brought him pain, for they were tears of blood. He had wondered once, if this wasn't normal. He wondered what other people cried, if not blood. But he had learned long ago that asking questions was not a good way to make the pain end sooner. That was now his first rule of thumb when it came to the hostile villagers. Don't say anything. Ever.

In clear scorn of the fact that he was blind, Naruto's eyes were a brilliant blue and gave no hint that they would never take in a single aspect of the world around them. All who actually saw them claimed to have looked into a pool of molten sapphire and were in awe of their beauty. But Naruto had long since given up trying to hold his eyes open in hopes that he might catch a glimpse of Sight. Now, he kept them closed constantly, a sign of defeat known only to him.

Thankfully, his hearing had become augmented exponentially over the years, so much so that Naruto learned to distinguish people by the different sounds that their feet made while they were approaching him. This way, he knew which feet to let come, and which to flee.

Unfortunately, somehow, some of the people he knew by sound had figured out how the boy always knew of their approach. They had changed shoes and walked with a different gait on purpose, in order to approach him, unsuspected, through a crowd.

That was how Naruto ended up in the state he currently was in.

The blond curled tighter as the blood continued to leak out. The pain was becoming almost unbearable, making it even more difficult to control. With a final sob, he gulped in a shaky, painful breath of air and held it, releasing slowly after a while before breathing in slowly again. He continued calming breaths and emptying his mind until he was empty of all his raging emotions. Soon after, he fell asleep.

000

Naruto woke silently, without a customary slow rise of sleep crusted eyelids. He took inventory of his surrounding without moving, noting the dried blood that was everywhere and the distinct smell that it carried with it. He also noted that he was healed, for the most part, which was not unusual for him, though the boy had no idea why this was.

He rose slowly from his tight curl and leaned against the base of the tree. He listened. There was a small stream nearby, if his hearing was correct, which it almost always was, so he weakly staggered to his feet and made his way towards it, following the curves of the terrain to avoid the majority of obstacles.

A quarter of a mile from his starting point, he knelt in the muddy bank of the rivulet and began the tedious process of washing all the blood from his body, or at least, as much as he could. He owned no second set of clothes and knew from experience that there was no way to salvage the set he had after one of the beatings. They were torn and smelled distinct such that everyone would be able to track him.

Previously, he would have gone to one of the stores that was cheap enough for him and beg for a new outfit, but his latest beating had revealed that the shop owner was no longer to be trusted. He had not only supplied the boy with a type of color that allowed people to find him easily, though Naruto had no idea how that worked, the man had also disclosed several of Naruto's private hiding locations. The boy would have to find a new person who was willing to help him.

Naruto stopped suddenly. There was a noise behind him, a cracked twig, muffled crunch, several footfalls and breathing. He stilled all movement and focused on his ears to determine who might be coming for him. He could hear the impact of sandals as they left and collided with hard, high surfaces a hundred or so meters out. It was a ninja. Naruto's heart rate sped up and he struggled to remain motionless. There was only one, and it could be one sent by Hokage-sama.

The man paused on a branch a few dozen meters out. Naruto guessed he was male, probably young, in his early twenties, seasoned enough to move through the trees with confidence and perfect balance, but also not so silently that the young boy could not pick up details from him, as would be the case with older ninja, or seasoned jonin. He shifted a bit, and Naruto realized that he was probably tracking him, and had paused above the place where he had crossed a recently used, but not well worn deer trail. A moment after he had come to the conclusion, the man had already started moving again. He bounded the last few branches, and there was a shift in direction, probably as he finally caught Sight of Naruto. He landed in the ground a few feet from the boy. Naruto's heart rate went up, his knees began to tremble and his breathing quickened visibly.

A calm, confident voice came from an invisible mouth a few feet above the boy. "Hey. My name's Umino Iruka. I was sent here by the Hokage, I'm here to help you."

Naruto's breathing did not slow down. He knew of the Hokage as one he admired, a leader and protector of the village as well as his future goal. But the boy had never actually taken steps to be closer to that goal. The old man always seemed very nice, as he sent monthly pouches of money to the boy by way of silent ninja messenger. Sometimes he even sent out someone to help him when he was hurt, to make sure he was healing, and find him shelter for the night, but the blond had never actually met the man, and wasn't sure what to make of this new representative from him. It wasn't the usual Helper, in fact, Naruto was almost certain that he had never encountered this man before. On one hand, he said he was here to help, and meeting new people who could him might take him just a step closer to his impossible goal. On the other hand, he might be lying and actually have been sent by the villagers. It had happened before.

The idea of becoming Hokage and gaining the respect of the entire village, even with his disability, was the one thing that the blond had not yet given up in life. It was a desperate cling, the only one that gave him the will to live in his miserable existence. He had managed to convince himself that ninjas all suffered in one way or another in order to achieve their goals and protect their village and his suffering was just like that. A feeble thought indeed, but it gave him the strength to get up after every beating and not just lay there and starve himself into a more restful existence. If the ninja that had just appeared had even the slightest way affiliated with a path that might make him stronger, he would have to take a chance and trust the man. But that didn't mean he was just going to immediately place his life in the strangers hand. He wasn't that stupid. His cautious nature wouldn't let him do that. He would take careful steps.

The newcomer noticed the boy's shaking and defensive behavior so he placed a calloused and yet somehow comforting hand the boy's shoulder. There was a shuffling of fabric as he came down to the Naruto's level. "You don't have to be so worried. I'm not like those other civilians." If Naruto could see, he would have noted the natural grin that lit up Iruka's face, but he couldn't. He did notice, however, the honesty that laced every word he said and the adjustment in posture that went along with it. He felt his paranoia level go into turmoil with weather it was a plot or a genuine comforting gesture. The trusting side won out after a few seconds and his arms loosened at his sides slightly and the small slouch that made up a feeble attempt at a defensive posture left his spine. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how on earth he could still find the hope to trust people even after he had given up most hope in himself, but more conscious thoughts pushed the whisper away. It was irrelevant.

Iruka noticed the slightly accepting changes the boy made. "You know what? Why don't we head over to my house before we go meet the Hokage? You need a new set of clothes, some food and a good shower." A blond head cautiously nodded a few times at the mention of something edible. Besides, he had already agreed with himself to try to trust the man. He couldn't contradict himself that quickly.

"Great. Why don't I give you a ride? You look like you might keel over any second now," he said with a chuckle. There was a bit of shuffling indicating to Naruto that the man was offering his back to the boy, but he had no idea what that meant. "Come on."

Naruto cautiously placed his hands on the back of a vest, grabbing hold firmly. There was a light chuckle before Iruka tipped foreword and pulled Naruto onto his back. Then, he straightened up and leapt into the trees, jumping from branch to branch at an alarming rate.

The boy felt his stomach drop out from under him and he immediately regretted not choosing to try to walk. The speed was frightening. Every time the man jumped off a new branch, he felt like he was plunging blindly into the dark. And it didn't help that he was on the back of someone he didn't know at all. He couldn't feel the reassuring touch of the ground, solid earth that was his only comfort, the only thing that never hurt him, which he could never really run into accidentally. The wind was whistling past his ears blocking out his acute hearing with its roar. It was worse than being blind. It was being completely void of all awareness around him except the steadily moving fabric of the vest beneath him. He had never known Sight, so he did not know blindness, but from other Helper's descriptions of it, this is what it truly felt like.

He dug his fingers into the seams of the material where his hands were, too afraid to move them off and into a better grip. Blood drops were forming beneath the tightly closed seams of his eyes so he squeezed them together harder, whimpering softly.

Iruka was somewhat aware of Naruto's fright and saw fit to try to calm him down. The voice reached the boys ears unlike all the noise around him. "We're almost there now," he said as the vibrations of his feet hitting wood changed to that of them hitting roof tiles. "Do you want anything in particular for dinner? I can try to cook, or we can pick up food somewhere, you're choice."

The blond was too freaked out to answer so Iruka ended up choosing. "Tell you what. After we get you some new clothes, we'll head over to one of those instant ramen places. I'm really in the mood for something salty and ridiculously unhealthy right now." To this, Naruto managed a shaky set of nods and laughter, and if he had been able to see, he would have again noted the way Iruka's smile managed to light up everything around him.

A few minutes later and Naruto felt the stomach dropping sensation that meant they were off the roofs and had landed on the street. He slid clumsily off the strangers back as the man started fumbling with one of his pockets to find a key. An instant later, and said key was in the lock of the door, turning the pegs with a click and rattle before the door swung open.

Naruto took note of the walking sounds Iruka made and realized not a second too late that there were a few steps leading up to the door. He stumbled but managed up the first few without incident but tripped on the last one. Thankfully, he managed to catch himself by grabbing blindly onto the back of Iruka's jacket. He kept his hand remain there so that he wouldn't trip on anything as he made his way through the unfamiliar house.

Eventually, Naruto was wound up behind Iruka in one of the more out-of-the-way rooms of the building. There followed a great sliding sound as a closet door slid open, followed by a good bit of muttering and shuffling of cloth before several articles of clothing and a pair of sandals found their way into Naruto's hands. "These should fit you," Iruka's voice came from in front of him, "but their clean and you're not, so you need to take a shower now." He was shuffled out the door by a pair of hands and into a tile floored room. There was the squeak of the tap and a rush of water, followed, a few minutes later, by the sound of steam indicating the temperature to be adequate.

"I'll be in the kitchen. Take two lefts to get there. When you're done, we'll go out to eat." With that, there were a few muffled steps and the sliding of the door as it closed.

Naruto stayed completely still in the middle of the room for a few minutes, trying to absorb what was going on. He had never been treated like this before. This Iruka character was letting him into his home, use his shower, eat his food and stay in his company. No-one ever did that. Normally, it was quiet mutterings and thrown objects. People would laugh when they hit him and he would try to run blindly away or avoid the heavy projectiles. Nobody ever gave him food, he had to scavenge it himself or use the little money that was left after the apartment rent had been paid. On top of that, people tried to charge him ridiculously high prices and would take advantage of the fact that he couldn't tell the bills apart. But this man had done none of that. He seemed perfectly at ease in the boy's company, not shrinking away, tensing up, muttering angrily and hoping that his sensitive ears wouldn't pick up the words. It was a huge shock and his mind was having no luck in coming up with a reason why this man was different.

If there were other ninja like this man, Iruka, Naruto was going to be the happiest person in town. He would have no problem finding someone to train him and no-one would mock him for his lack of sight. It would be hard to believe that any of them would be capable of killing anyone.

The room was becoming rather moist and it snapped Naruto out of his stunned state. He quickly stripped and stepped into the water, marveling at how the water felt streaming down his arms and soaking into his hair, washing the blood out before evaporating into columns of steam. He ran his fingers through his hair and realized how slick it felt from the sweat and blood in it. He fumbled around the shower for a minute and came across only one bottle of liquid that smelled vaguely like particular kind of clean that Iruka's hair was. He decided that this was the shampoo, though he had never smelled anything like it before, and gingerly poured some of it into his hand. He put both the shampoo and the scentless bar of soap to good use quickly and tried to keep from drifting off into his little reveries of what ninja life would be like so that he wouldn't waist the hot water.

Twenty minutes later, the last of the blood was finally off and Naruto turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, dried off quickly and changed into the clean clothes, which Iruka had left for him. He left the room sincerely hoping that he wasn't dreaming about the fact that someone was so nice to him.

He ran his hand down the walls, making one left out of the bathroom and another around a corner, nearly tripping over the lip of the doorway. He stopped when he felt that the wall had disappeared and a counter was running along in its stead. There was a scraping of a chair and Iruka came over to him. He set a clean, soft and yet durable feeling jacket into Naruto's hand and the boy gratefully put on.

"The ramen place is two streets down, we'll walk."

Naruto nodded.

They exited the house and took a right with Naruto's hand firmly stuck to the side of Iruka's durable vest. Naruto could feel the dirt covering his toes through the holes in his new shoes. He grimaced. It was nice feeling the squeaky clean way his toes rubbed together and it was bothering him to have dirt in them again. Instead, the boy changed the way he walked so that would raise less dust and noise.

Removing his thoughts from his feet, Naruto concentrated on sensing the familiar footsteps that he knew were falling all around him. The sightless child could feel the way the eyes of those people followed him angrily but dared not make a move to harm him. He noticed the way they moved aside for him in the road and that Iruka ignored them completely, held his head high, gaze foreword and moved with a sense of purpose that none could match and yet somehow still completely at ease. He was like a ray of warmth cutting through the cold winds of an overcast day. Naruto smiled one of the few genuine smiles he had ever given. He had finally found someone who he believed he could trust and who he knew would never turn him away.

Iruka slowed and turned left, brushing some cloth away with his hand as he did so. "Take a seat," he said, tapping a stool in the general area in front of the boy.

Naruto stuck his hands, finding the stool easily, and sat down. He proceeded to explore the counter and surrounding seats with his hands. Iruka was to his left and there were at least two empty seats on his right. Beyond that, he could hear the cutesy talk of a couple and the muttering of some of his hate-club.

The footsteps of one of the servers approached from behind the counter. "Hello, my name's Ayame, what can I get you?"

Naruto switched his head over to face Iruka, a look of uncertainty plastered all over it. He felt Iruka glance over to him and smile. "We'll take two miso ramen," he answered.

The feeling of happiness bubbled off the girl and Naruto could tell she definitely didn't dislike him. "They'll be right up," she called before her feet scuttled away from the two of them. Naruto then turned to Iruka.

"You're a ninja right?" hoping to jump to the topic of him wanting to be trained.

"Yup"

"What rank?"

"Chunin. That's the average ninja."

Naruto nodded. Chunin was good. It explained why the villagers were hesitant to mess with him. It would be good to be friends with this man. He would be safe and nobody would ever pick on him again for fear of incurring the wrath of a capable ninja. He might not be able to learn as much from this ninja though. He knew that most genin were paired with jonin, and that jonin typically had far more experience in fighting so they could teach better. It might be better to get Iruka to hand him off to another friendly ninja.

Naruto pondered what to say next. Would he jump right to the request for training and more importantly, could he afford to waste this opportunity in hopes that he might have a better time to ask? For all he knew he might never see this man again. The boy decided that being blunt would have to do. "Would it be possible for me to become a ninja?" Naruto asked the chunin.

The man's gaze turned over to the boy and he could feel it burning a hole through his dead eyes. The silence was thick with anticipation

"What?"

"Is there any way for me to become a ninja?" he repeated, the unspoken 'even though I'm blind' hanging in the air between them.

"You want to be a ninja."

"Please? I really want to be able to defend myself and to have people respect me."

"You know that it's going to be really hard don't you?"

"Yeah"

"And I still want to commit to this?"

"Of course. I've had the goal to become a great ninja for years. Probably as soon as I knew what a ninja was."

There was a long silence.

"I can talk to the Hokage about it. It's probably not a bad idea. You of all people need to know how to keep yourself safe." There was a note of real contemplation in Iruka's voice that made Naruto nearly bounce in his seat out of sheer giddiness. His incredibly frank question actually had a shot. But it wasn't every day that a young blind boy spontaneously asks to become a ninja. Of course it would take consideration and authorization with the right people. "For the moment, let's suppose that you are allowed," Naruto's happiness/hopefulness gauge went up another notch or two "Given your situation, would you want to be enrolled in the ninja academy?"

Naruto frowned. That was a good question. He hadn't considered if he wanted to or not. It might be better to learn together with other people, but they might hold him back. And he definitely wouldn't get the specialized attention that he knew he would need. He frowned. "I'm not sure. I really don't know if that's best, but it seems like there are no other options."

"That's true." Iruka said, "You will need to attend the academy for at least one year in order to become a genin, but there is also the possibility of taking a private teacher before attending the academy, or while in the academy."

"I think I like the second choice."

"That's what I was thinking as well." Iruka said, with a grin that Naruto could feel. "I'm sure we'd have no problem finding you a teacher, but if worse comes to worse, I'll teach you." Naruto paused, turning once again to face Iruka.

"Really?"

"If the Hokage lets me, then yes."

It took a moment to let the promise sink in, but then Naruto grinned brightly, and he threw his arms around the older man, like the Helper had once done to him. He buried his face in the man's vest and forced down the odd prickling sensation that was growing at his eyes. "Thank you." He said, his voice muffled by the cloth.

The chunin broke into another sunlit smile that the boy couldn't see, and hugged him in return. "Now all that has to be done is to talk to the Hokage about it."

The serving girl came back with two bowls of delicious smelling food. If he wasn't so excited about the idea of becoming a ninja or having his first real friend, Naruto would have been drooling at the smell a long time ago. The boy snapped the chopsticks that Iruka handed him apart and immediately dug in, savoring every mouth watering bite. He couldn't help smiling. He was thinking that his life was finally taking the much needed turn for the better. Little did he know that in two weeks, he would be sorely regretting the very idea of the ninja.

CHAPTER ONE END

Alright. So to reiterate

Pairings have yet to be decided - if there are any at all. So speak now.

And constructive criticism is encouraged. I don't care if it's mean. I want opinions. Please give them to me.

In other words, REVIEW.


End file.
